The city's free testing site at the Pepsi Center will reopen on Wednesday with reduced hours after closing early on Tuesday due to a shortage of testing kits prompted by increases in COVID-19 cases in Arizona, Texas and Florida, according to a release from the city.
The release said the city's testing partner, LabCorp, "is experiencing a shortage of testing kit availability nationwide," which is impacting the number of testing kits available in Denver. Several states, including Colorado, are reporting increases in COVID-19 cases, with states like Florida reporting record number of single-day increases.
So starting tomorrow, the drive-up testing site at the Pepsi Center parking lot will reduce its operations from seven days to five days a week (Monday through Friday) and will be open from 8 a.m. to noon. The site used to be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (gates would be closed after 4 p.m. to ensure everyone in line was accommodated). It will be closed this Friday and on Monday, which was previously scheduled due to the Fourth of July Holiday and a mandatory furlough for city employees.
Since opening on May 22, the site has completed more than 34,000 tests. It set a record number for a single day on Monday, when it completed 2,009 tests. The city has a 2.85 percent positive rate among tests at the site.
Denver had 6,993 COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, according to data from Denver Public Health.
